Another 48 hours in Madrid

Post written by Laura

I’m back in Madrid, Spains charming capital city for the fifth time (if you include 2 past proper visits and 2 unintended overnights due to delays to and from Asturias in November 2021).

This time I’m at the beginning of a trip with G Adventures to walk a section of the Camino Frances with Bridget, my best friend. The Camino Frances is also known as ‘The Way of St James’ an ancient pilgrim route which ends in Santiago de Compostela. Much more of this will be covered in forthcoming posts.

At the beginning of our G Adventures ‘Camino de Santiago Encompassed‘ trip, our group met in Madrid and we had 2 days to enjoy the city before travelling to Sarria in north west Spain for the start of the walk.

Our leader Elu introduced herself and our fellow travellers at the 6.30 pm welcome meeting on the first day. Shortly afterwards Elu led us to a restaurant where our group of 10 bonded over alfresco dinner and drinks sitting in the warm atmospheric evening of the Plaza Mayor.

Paella is a classic Spanish dish of rice and seafood – this was my first choice for my first meal in Madrid 🙂

We met in the Hotel Europa, our base for 2 nights which had a fabulous location about 30 metres from the Puerta del Sol one of the most vibrant plazas of the city.

Bridget and I had spent some time having an initial wander around the city during our first afternoon before we met the group. On the second morning Elu took 5 of us on an optional walking tour where she spent time pointing out some of the interesting features we had missed the previous day. For example she explained the bear and strawberry tree statue in Puerta del Sol which represents the coat of arms of Madrid.

Also in Puerta del Sol is Kilometre Zero, stone slab in front of the Royal House of the Post Office and its clock tower. This is the point where the distances of the national roads of Spain are measured.

Elu also explained the Spanish have a New Year’s Eve tradition called the ’12 grapes of luck’ where a grape is eaten at each strike of the clock tower at midnight. Each grape and strike of the clock represents luck for each of the next 12 months. This tradition started at the above clock tower in Puerta del Sol and spread throughout Spain.

In no particular order this post continues outlining our Madrid activities. Bridget and I visited Mercado San Miguel which is a bustling food market next to Plaza Mayor. This food extravaganza was first opened in 1916 and in here you can sample products from the local Galician region and from all over Spain.

For 5 euros each we enjoyed a small bowl of super fresh and tasty fruit.

Tapas are little savoury Spanish dishes which can be eaten separately as apetizers or combined into a more substantial meal. There was a huge range of tapas in this busy food market and a few places where you could either sit or stand to eat them.

Our eyes lit up when we spied an Aperol Sptitz stall 😋 market style this cocktail of Prosecco, Aperol and soda was served in a large almost pint sized beaker!

The Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish royal family. I had a tour inside the lavish interior of the palace when I first visited Madrid in October 2004. Commissioned by King Philip V the palace was designed by Italian architect Francisco Sabatini and was first used as a royal residence by King Charles III when it first opened in 1764. This is the largest royal palace in Europe.

Looking west from the Royal Palace are the extensive grounds which were once used for hunting.

The Almudena Cathedral is located next to the Royal Palace and is the most religious building in Madrid. Entry is free although you can donate 1 euro if you wish to.

It is well worth visiting the cathedral to see the magnificent and colourful interior.

Next… more food…

After the cathedral visit our attention was drawn back to our taste buds with more culinary Madrid highlights. Churros originated in Spain but have also become popular in Central and South America. They are often eaten for breakfast or a late night snack. Middle of the afternoon was fine for us!

Opened in 1894, the oldest ‘churreria’ is San Gines which is one of the most famous of Madrids attractions. People queue outside the door to buy their delicious churros.

We sat outside San Gines eating churros with a cappucino, americano and a cup of warm delicious chocolate in which to dip the churros in.

Another delicious treat was a couple of cocktails each in the Gingko Sky Bar. As non resident guests we had to pay 8 euros each to enter the Sky Bar and at 14 euros per cocktail this wasn’t the cheapest sky bar experience ever… but…

We had fabulous views of the city…

And there was an extensive open air terrace with comfy seating and a swimming pool which was available for hotel guests. There was also a large air conditioned inside restaurant.

As we wandered around Madrid we noticed several shops selling nougat. Sellers would stand at the doorway with huge plates of delicious samples of nougat. Of course, we had to do our research and try some which kept us busy on the first afternoon!

Also during our first afternoon Bridget and I came across an ‘iris eye art shop’ and being quite intrigued we went inside to find out more… we discovered you could have a close up photo of your iris taken and if required an effect could be applied to create an iris work of art!

I ended up with a framed picture of my right eye and digital copy. This was 65 euros and while we realised we could have done this in London, this was a cool and slightly random thing to do instead in Madrid.

Madrid by night is a wonderful experience. As mentioned, Bridget and I spent our first night (Friday) having dinner in Plaza Mayor getting to know our new G Adventures friends. The following afternoon and evening everyone ‘did their own thing’. Bridget and I had eaten churros, spent a couple of relaxing hours in the sky bar, visited the huge Decathlon store just to check for any last minute additional trekking kit items and hadn’t returned back to the hotel.

By around 8 pm we were in search of dinner! We tried a couple of restaurants which our guide Elu had recommended but one was full and the other was extremely busy too. We stumbled upon a small backstreet square frequented by locals.

And here we had a fabulous meal and our first taste of Spanish sidra which was served in champagne flutes and left to chill in an ice bucket next to our open air table.

Plaza Mayor is a large square in the centre of Madrid, not far from Puerta del Sol. During the Saturday morning Elu had taken us to Plaza Mayor and explained some of the fascinating history of the square. For example, over many years it has been used for bull fights, fiestas and even executions. Today it is lined with shops, bars and open air restaurants. As mentioned, we had our first Friday evening dinner in this square with our new G Adventures friends.

The Tio Pepe illuminated sign has been at the centre stage of Puerta del Sol since its installation in 1936. This Spanish sherry advert was previously above what is now the Apple store and apparently Apple paid huge sums to have it moved. Unfortunately Apple became unstuck as the Tio Pepe sign (at great expense to Apple) was moved but they were not granted permission to stick an Apple logo at the top of their building!

We spent 2 nights in the Hotel Europa which I would recommend due to its fabulous location, just meters from Puerta del Sol and its metro station, tasty breakfast and comfortable rooms.

At the end of our stay in Madrid, on the Sunday morning Elu led us to the metro and then to the train station for our onward journey to Sarria.

Summary

Madrid is a great city and one I would happily return to at any given opportunity. We had a brilliant couple of days there and a good start to our 10 day Spanish adventure.

Next up will be a series of posts which cover our experience of the Camino de Santiago!